americans, including america's ambassador, chris stevens. the white house originally described it as a mob riot, but today, high-ranking officials called it something more sinist sinister, the work of terrorists, preplanned, sophisticated, highly engineered and deadly. abc's jake tapper has the details. good evening, jake. >> reporter: good evening, george, that's right. and this 180 comes on the heels of criticism, much of it from republicans, that the white house downplayed this terrorist attack, less than two months before the election. secretary of defense leon panetta today acknowledged that the attack that killed four americans in benghazi, libya, on the anniversary of 9/11 was not only carried out by terrorists, it was premeditated. >> as we determined the details of what took place there and how that attack took place, that it became clear that there were terrorists who had planned that attack. >> reporter: the white house first suggested that the benghazi attack was spontaneous. the result of that anti-muslim video inciting mobs throughout the region. >> jake, let's be clear. this
